Ancestry
by UndercoverWombat
Summary: Former slave Enth investigates a presence in the Dark Temple and learns something about herself. Part of the Beeska Saga.


__I don't own Star Wars: The Old Republic. This is a one-shot to introduce the Sith Inquisitor Enth Kallig, part of the Beeska Saga.

* * *

_When I am a Dark Lord of the Sith_, Enth decides, _my great project will be restoring this._

She pads through the Dark Temple barefoot, hidden by a stealth generator. Stealth generators don't work if people pay too much attention- people like workers possessed by paranoid ghosts- so Enth keeps roughly half her attention focused on projecting an aura of distraction. She can see the eyes of the temple's inhabitants glazing as she passes.

They can't see her, but if they could, they wouldn't be very afraid. She's a red Zabrak, all of five feet tall, with dark red skin and sharp black tattoos. Her small ivory horns form a crown above her forehead, intertwined with thin black cornrow braids. She's not as thin as she used to be, but she's hardly a curvaceous specimen. She's only seventeen, though, so she still has hopes on that particular front.

The aura of distraction uses half her mind. The other half is focused on how cold she is. Dromund Kaas is such a miserable planet, cold and dark and rainy. Running around fetching bits and bobs to kill Darth Skotia hadn't been too bad; at least Enth could wrap herself in dark wool robes and thick boots. But not when venturing into the Dark Temple, no. Stealth generators don't work with too much fabric, so she's in a tight jumpsuit, and they don't mask noise, so she's tiptoeing barefoot around puddles.

_Priority one of restoring the Dark Temple: fix the roof._

The entrance to Kallig's tomb is suspiciously devoid of the possessed, but Enth is too happy at their absence to be worried by it. She ducks into a nook behind a statue to switch off her stealth generator and unsling the bag from her back. Slipping her frozen feet into boots only takes a minute. She stares at the carefully packed robe in the bottom of the bag for a moment before deciding not to wear it; it would only hinder her going for her lightsaber or her staff. Looking more workman-like than most of the workmen in the temple, Enth heads into the tomb of the angry ghost.

The whispers start almost immediately.

_intruder intruder intruder_

_not supposed to be here, little girl_

_smell flesh and bone and hot blood let it spill spurt puddle drink it up_

There are others, in the language of the pureblood Sith and in older tongues, but Enth tunes them all out. The hallway is lined with doors, hiding sarcophagi set into the walls: Kallig's family, friends, apprentices, servants and slaves. She comes to a three-pronged fork and is forced to stop. Quieting her mind, she listens. The halls to the right and left resound with murmurs, inviting her to various horrible fates, but the one ahead is silent. She steps over the threshold. The whispers stop abruptly, as though she's stepped outside their realm, or as though they're watching to see what will happen.

She's kept a veil over her mind from the day she realized her Force powers, the way a highborn lady might wear a veil over her face. Enth closes her eyes and lowers it a bit, just enough to broadcast.

_well Kallig here I am_

A sensation washes over her, like being crushed to the ground by someone stronger in the Force. Enth locks her knees and refuses to fall.

_Good_, Kallig whispers. _Come._

One of her feet shuffles forward of its own accord. The little Zabrak grits her teeth.

_I'm coming don't be impatient and DON'T PUSH ME AROUND_

Kallig's laugh ripples out from the depths of the tomb as Enth replaces her veil.

The main chamber is relatively plain compared to the fabulous tombs of Korriban, but everything is plain compared to Korribani tombs. Four stone braziers surround a sarcophagus in the center of the dais.

_Ready, girl?_

Kallig's question pierces Enth's veil. The girl winces, trying to turn away from the source. Instead, she finds herself dragged across the tomb and pinned to the far wall.

"Let go of me!" she cries instinctively.

_Be silent._ Kallig coalesces before her, taking the shape of a male humanoid in full armor. The Force ghost waves a hand. Just like that, Enth's veil is gone: all her thoughts and memories unprotected, like a nerve flayed of flesh and exposed to air. She gasps, eyes rolling back in pain as the Sith Lord riffles through her memories. _Yes... yes! I have felt your movements in the Force, little one._

_don't give a damn get out of my head it hurts get out it hurts_

Kallig listens, disentangling himself from Enth's thoughts and replacing her veil. _Listen to me, _he orders.

Enth slides down the wall to sit on the stone floor. "I'm listening."

_I am not yet strong enough to leave, but I knew if I made myself enough of a nuisance, you would eventually come. The Sith throw flesh endlessly at what they cannot control, and here you are, blood of my blood. Here you are._

"What did you call me?"

_Ah... you don't know me_. There seems to be a hint of sadness in the ghost's voice. _Has our family fallen so far that the daughter of my daughters does not know the name of Kallig, the name so long revered in the annals of the Sith?_

"I know it," Enth mutters. "I just didn't know it belonged to me."

_You are my descendant- by how many generations, I do not know. But our connection through blood was enough to waken the Force in you, and waken me from my stupor._ The ghost begins to pace. _When the fools who encroached on this temple awakened me, I rose and resumed my former life. This temple was my kingdom, and I was once more a Lord of the Sith. But when you first grasped at the Force, I knew my hour had come and gone. _The ghost stops pacing to face Enth. _It is your strength, not mine, that will restore our family to glory. _

The girl pauses for a moment before shrugging. "All right. It isn't as though I have anything else planned."


End file.
